Shorter Rules (Asceticon, Regulae brevius tractatae) 245–271

Question. Who is wise as the serpent and innocent as the dove?

Answer. Wise as the serpent is one who arranges his teaching with circumspection and consideration of what is possible and what will succeed toward the persuasion of the hearers; and innocent as the dove is one who does not even entertain the thought of retaliating against one who plots against him, but perseveres in doing good, according to the Apostle's command: “But you, do not grow weary in doing good.” For the Lord gave these commands to the disciples when sending them out to preach, where there was need both of wisdom to persuade and of forbearance toward those who plotted against them; so that, as the serpent there knew how to approach a more easily led person and to speak persuasively so as to draw her away from God and bring her under sin, so we too may choose person, manner, and time, and in every way arrange our words with judgment, so as to draw people away from sin and lead them back to God; and may achieve endurance in temptations to the end, as it is [written] …

Question. What is the meaning of “Love does not behave unbecomingly”?

Answer. It is equivalent to saying that it does not fall away from its own form. And the form of love is the marks of love listed by the Apostle in the same passage.

Question. Since Scripture says, “Do not boast, and do not speak lofty things,” and the Apostle at one time confesses, “What I say I do not say according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting,” and again, “I have become a fool in boasting,” and at another permits it, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord,” what is boasting in the Lord, and what is the forbidden boasting?

Answer. The Apostle's opposition to the passions, made out of necessity, is plain. For he says these things not to commend himself, but to bring down the audacity and elation of certain people's boastfulness. Boasting is in the Lord when someone attributes his good deeds not to himself but to the Lord, saying, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” The forbidden kind may be understood in two ways: either according to the saying, “The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul,” and, “Why do you boast in wickedness, O mighty man?”; or according to the saying, “They do it to be seen by men,” through the very wish to be praised for what they do, as if boasting in what they do. Such people would also be sacrilegious, appropriating God's gifts and snatching for themselves the glory owed to God.

Question. If the Lord gives wisdom, and from his face come knowledge and understanding; and if through the Spirit to one is given a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge: how does the Lord reproach the disciples, “Are you also still without understanding?”, and how does the Apostle blame some as without understanding?

Answer. If someone knows the goodness of God, who wills all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and has learned the care of the Holy Spirit in the distribution and working of God’s gifts, he recognizes that slowness of understanding comes, not from any reluctance in the Benefactor, but from the unbelief of those who receive the benefits. And the one without understanding is rightly reproached, like someone who shuts his eyes when the sun has risen … by his own will, so as to spend his time in darkness, and does not look up so as to be enlightened.

Question. What is the holy, and what is the just?

Answer. The holy, I reckon, is what is fitting and owed by those beneath to the one who is higher, according to the measure of his superiority; the just is what is rendered to each according to the worth of his deeds. In the case of the holy, there is only gratitude and the return of the finest things; in the case of the just, there is also the testing and requital of evils.

Question. How does one give what is holy to the dogs, or throw pearls before swine? And how does what follows come about: “lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you”?

Answer. The Apostle hands it down to us clearly in what he added to the words he spoke to the Jews: “You who boast in the law, you dishonor God by transgressing the law.” So the dishonor with which we dishonor the holy words of the Lord by transgression is what the Lord forbade here. From such transgression it comes about that those outside the faith both regard the Lord’s teachings as contemptible and, taking occasion from those very teachings, rise up against us more boldly, and, as it were, tear the transgressor with reproaches and refutations.

Question. How is it that the Lord at one time forbids carrying a purse and a bag on the way, and at another says, “But now let the one who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag; and let the one who has none sell his cloak and buy a sword”?

Answer. The Lord himself makes this clear, saying, “For this must still be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was counted among the lawless.’” For immediately after the prophecy about the sword was fulfilled, he says to Peter, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” So “But now let the one who has a purse take it” (or “will take it,” for so most of the copies have it) is not a command; rather, the Lord is foretelling, as a prophecy, that the apostles would forget his gifts and the law of the Lord and would even dare to take up a sword. That Scripture often uses the imperative form of speech instead of the prophetic is plain from many places, such as, “Let his sons become orphans,” and, “Let the devil stand at his right hand,” and the like.

Question. What is the daily bread that we have been taught to pray to be given us each day?

Answer. When the worker, remembering the Lord, who says, “Do not be anxious for your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,” and the Apostle, who commands us to work so that we may have something to give to him who has need, works not for his own need but for the Lord's commandment (since “the workman is worthy of his food”), then he does not leave to himself the daily bread, that is, the bread that serves our being for this day's life, but makes petition to God about it; and having shown him the necessity of his want, he eats what is given him by the one appointed after testing to carry out each day the saying: “It was distributed to each as anyone had need.”

Question. What is the talent, and how shall we multiply it?

Answer. I reckon that the parable has been spoken about every gift of God, so that each one, whatever grace he is found to have from God, may multiply it by bringing it to the benefit and help of many. For no one is without a share in God's kindness …

Question. What is the table, on which the Lord says, “You ought to have put my money”?

Answer. Parables do not fulfil their meanings in every detail, but guide the mind toward the matter in question. As, then, it is fitting for money to be given to the bankers for gain (for they are, as it were, ones who make it productive), so it is necessary that one who has received any grace whatever share it with him who has need, or else do what the Apostle said about the word: “Commit these things to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” For this naturally happens not only with the word but with every matter: some have the ability, while others have received experience in management.

Question. Where was he commanded to go who heard, “Take what is yours and go”?

Answer. Perhaps where those set on the left were also commanded to go, who were charged with idleness in what is good. And everyone who envies his brother is worse than the idle man, since Scripture is accustomed in many places to place envy with murder.

Question. What is the wage that these too receive equally with the last?

Answer. Perhaps not being charged for the good deeds one has done, which is common to all who obey. For being crowned is proper to those who have fought the good fight lawfully, finished the course, and kept the faith in the love of Christ Jesus our Lord. But the wage agreed on can also be the hundredfold which the Lord promised that those who leave anything of present things for his commandment's sake will receive in this present time; so that “Take what is yours” was said of this; but since those who thought they had laboured longer fell sick with the passion of envy against those who enjoyed equal things, they no longer inherit eternal life as well, but, receiving only the hundredfold now, are condemned in the age to come for their envy and hear, “Go.”

Question. Who are the chaff burned with unquenchable fire?

Answer. Those who are useful to those worthy of the kingdom of heaven, as the chaff is to the wheat, but do it without the disposition of love toward God and toward their neighbour, whether in spiritual gifts or in bodily benefits, and so leave themselves unperfected.

Question. Who is the one condemned by the Apostle, “Delighting in humility and worship” and so on?

Answer. I think what follows makes clear the matter under inquiry in the passage. For going on he speaks of severity to the body; such are the Manichaeans, and any who are like them.

Question. Who is fervent in spirit?

Answer. One who does the will of God with burning eagerness, insatiable desire, and unflagging zeal, in the love of Christ Jesus our Lord, according to what is written: “In his commandments he will delight greatly.”

Question. Since the Apostle says at one time, “Do not be foolish,” and at another, “Do not be wise in your own opinion,” is it possible for one who is not foolish not to be wise in his own opinion?

Answer. Each command has its own definition. For to “Do not be foolish” he adds, “But understanding what the will of God is”; and to “Do not be wise in your own eyes” is added, “But fear the Lord and turn away from all evil.” So the foolish man is one who does not understand the will of the Lord; and the man wise in his own opinion is everyone who uses his own reasonings and does not follow the words of God by faith. If, then, someone wishes to be neither foolish nor wise in his own opinion, he must understand the will of the Lord by faith in him, and in the fear of God imitate the Apostle, who says: “Casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

Question. Since the Lord promised, “All things whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive,” and again, “If two of you agree on earth about any matter they ask, it will be done for them,” how is it that even the saints asked for some things and did not receive them? As the Apostle said, “For this I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me,” and did not receive his request; and so too Jeremiah the prophet, and Moses himself.

Answer. Since our Lord Jesus Christ said in prayer, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” and then added, “Yet not my will, but yours be done,” we must first know that we have not been permitted to ask for everything we wish, nor do we always know how to ask for what is profitable. “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.” So our requests must be made with much circumspection, according to the will of God; and when we are not heard, we must know that there is need either of perseverance or of intensity, according to the Lord's parable on the need to pray always and not lose heart, and according to what he said in another place, “Because of his persistence he will rise and give him as much as he needs”; or of correction and care, according to what was said by God through the prophet to certain people: “When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my face from you; and if you multiply your petition, I will not hear you. For your hands are full of blood. Wash, become clean,” and so on. And that even now the hands of many become and are full of blood, those who believe that judgment of God must not doubt, which he pronounced against one who was commanded to warn the people and kept silent: “The blood of the one who has sinned will be required at the hands of the watchman.” Being fully assured that this is true and inviolable, the Apostle said: “I am clean from now on from the blood of all; for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” And if the one who only kept silent is found guilty of the blood of those who sin, what could one say of those who cause others to stumble by what they do or say? Sometimes too the request is not granted because of the unworthiness of the one asking, as with David, who prayed to build a house for God and was prevented: he was not estranged from being well-pleasing to God, but neither was he judged worthy of that. Jeremiah, on the other hand, appears not to have been heard because of the wickedness of those for whom he prayed. And often, having let slip through negligence the time when we should have made the request, we find ourselves asking later out of season and in vain.

As for “For this I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me,” we must know that the reason for afflictions, both outward and bodily, is manifold and various, God either bringing them or permitting them for some purpose better than relief from them. If, then, someone can recognize that he must be delivered from the affliction through prayer and petition, he is heard when he asks, like the two blind men in the Gospel, the ten lepers, and many others. But if someone does not recognize the reason for which he has fallen into the trial (for often the purpose of what is brought on him is to be achieved through endurance), and, when he ought to endure to the end, begs off the affliction, he is not heard, since he does not concur with the purpose of God's love for mankind.

As for “If two of you agree,” the passage itself makes it clear. For it speaks of one who reproves the sinner and of the one reproved. Since God does not desire the death of the sinner so much as that he turn and live, if the one reproved is pierced in soul and comes to agree with the aim of the one who reproves, about any matter, that is, about any sin whatever for which they ask forgiveness, it will be given them by God who loves mankind. But if the one reproved does not agree with the one who reproves, there is no longer forgiveness but binding, according to what follows: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,” that judgment being fulfilled: “If the one reproved refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector.”

Question. Since Scripture places poverty and want among the things praised, as in “Blessed are the poor,” and in “The Lord has heard the desire of the needy,” and again, “The poor and needy will praise your name,” what is the difference between poverty and want? And how does David speak truly in saying, “But I am poor and needy”?

Answer. Remembering the Apostle, who said of the Lord, “That for our sakes he became poor, though he was rich,” I reckon that the poor man is one who has come down from wealth to want, and the needy man one who from the beginning was in want and has steered such a circumstance in a way pleasing to the Lord. And David confesses that he is poor and needy, perhaps saying this too in the person of the Lord, who is called poor according to “Who for our sakes became poor, though he was rich,” and needy inasmuch as according to the flesh he was called the son not of some rich man but of a carpenter. Or perhaps too because he knew, like Job, not to hoard his own possessions nor to attend to his wealth as his own, but to manage everything according to the will of the Lord.

Question. What does the Lord mean to teach by the examples to which he adds, “So therefore everyone of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple”? For if one who wishes to build a tower, or to engage another king, must make preparation either for the building or for the war, but if he is not able, may either not lay the foundation at all or ask for terms of peace, must one who wishes to become the Lord's disciple likewise renounce all; but if he finds himself ill-disposed toward this, may he not even begin to be a disciple of the Lord?

Answer. The Lord's aim in these examples is not to give leave to become his disciple or not, but to show the impossibility of pleasing God amid what distracts the soul; in which the soul is also in danger, becoming an easy prey to the wiles of the devil, and is shown up as deserving mockery and laughter because of the incompleteness of what it seemed to strive for. The Prophet, praying not to suffer this, said: “Lest my enemies rejoice over me; and when my feet slipped they boasted against me.”

Question. Since the Apostle says, “That you may be sincere,” and again, “But as of sincerity,” what is sincerity?

Answer. I reckon sincerity to be what is unmixed and perfectly purified from everything contrary, gathered together and ordered to godliness alone; and not only that, but also to what is exactly required at each time and in each matter toward its aim, so that one appointed to something is not distracted even toward good deeds akin to it. The first is shown by the sequence itself: for to “But as of sincerity” he adds, “As from God, before God, we speak in Christ.” The second is shown by “Not to think more highly than one ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith,” and by what follows.

Question. Was the saying, “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift,” spoken to the priests only, or to all? And how does each of us offer a gift on the altar?

Answer. It would be fitting to take this especially and primarily of priests; but since it is written, “But you shall be called priests of the Lord, ministers of God, all of you,” and, “A sacrifice of praise will glorify me,” and again, “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit,” and the Apostle says, “To present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, your reasonable service,” each of these is common to all; and it is necessary for each of us to achieve this.

Question. What is the salt which the Lord commanded us to have, saying, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another”? And the Apostle says, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt.”

Answer. Here too the meaning is plain from what is joined to each saying. In the Lord's words we are taught to give no occasion for dissolution and separation from one another, but always to be kept together in the bond of peace for the unity of the Spirit. In the Apostle's, one who remembers him who said, “Will bread be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in empty words?” will be taught to manage his words for the building up of faith, “that it may give grace to those who hear,” using a fitting time and seemly order, so that the hearers may become more ready to obey.

Question. If one will be beaten with many blows and another with few, how do some say that there is no end to punishment?

Answer. What seems to be said ambiguously and obscurely in some places of the God-inspired Scripture is made clear by what is acknowledged in other places. Since, then, the Lord at one time declares that “these will go away into eternal punishment,” and at another sends some “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” and elsewhere names “the hell of fire” and adds, “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched,” and long before, through the prophet, had said of some that “their worm will not die,” though these things stand written, this too is one of the devil's wiles: that most people, as though forgetting so many and such great words and sentences of the Lord, prescribe for themselves an end of punishment, so as to venture the more boldly on sin. For if there will ever be an end of eternal punishment, eternal life too will certainly have an end. And if we do not accept thinking this of life, what reason is there to give an end to eternal punishment? For the addition of “eternal” stands equally with both: “For these will go away,” it says, “into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” These things being thus acknowledged, we must know that both “will be beaten with many blows” and “will be beaten with few” signify not an end but a difference of punishment. For if God is a righteous judge, not only to the good but also to the wicked, rendering to each according to his deeds, one may be worthy of unquenchable fire, and that either milder or more burning; another of the undying worm, and that again either paining more gently or more fiercely, according to each one's desert; another of hell, which certainly has different punishments; and another of the outer darkness, where one is only in weeping, while another is also in gnashing of teeth because of the intensity of his pains. And the outer darkness certainly implies that there is also an inner one. And the saying in Proverbs, “to the depths of Hades,” shows that there are some who are in Hades, but not in the depths of Hades, undergoing a lighter punishment. One can picture this even now in the sufferings of the body. One man has fever with other symptoms and ailments; another has fever only, and not like the first; another has no fever but is afflicted by pain in some limb, and this man again more or less than another. And the Lord spoke this “many and few” according to common usage, as also certain other such things. For we know that this form of speech is often used even of those afflicted by a single ailment, as when we say of someone with fever only, or with a pain in the eye, in wonder, “How much he has suffered!” or “How many hardships he has endured!” So to be beaten with many or few blows, I say again, lies not in the length or completion of time, but in the difference of the punishment.

Question. In what sense are some called sons of disobedience and children of wrath?

Answer. The Lord is accustomed to call those who do someone's will, whether good or evil, his children and sons. “For if you were children of Abraham,” he says, “you would do the works of Abraham”; and again, “You are of your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father.” So one who works the works of disobedience becomes a son of disobedience. And perhaps, as the devil is called not only a sinner but sin itself, because he became, as I think, the author of sin, so the devil might also be called disobedience itself for the same reason. And one is a child of wrath inasmuch as he has made himself worthy of wrath. For as the Apostle called those worthy of the Lord, who do the works of light and of day, sons of light and sons of day, so it is fitting to understand also, “We were children of wrath.” One must know, however, that the son of disobedience is the same as the child of wrath, since the Lord declared: “He who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God will remain on him.”

Question. Since it is written, “Doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts,” whether the [wishes of the flesh] are one thing [and those of the thoughts another].

Answer. The wishes of the flesh the Apostle lists by name, one by one, in another place, saying: “Now the works of the flesh are plain, which are adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, rages, rivalries, dissensions, factions, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and things like these”; and elsewhere more comprehensively: “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.” The wishes of the thoughts would be reasonings not attested by Scripture, such as those of which it is said, “Casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,” and thoughts not taken captive to the obedience of Christ. Therefore it is necessary and safe always and everywhere to keep what was said by David: …

Question. What is the meaning of “Perplexed, but not in despair”?

Answer. The Apostle, showing the full assurance of his trust in God by contrast with the human mind, sets down each of the things in this passage in this way. As regards the human mind, he says, “Afflicted in every way”; as regards trust in God he adds, “But not crushed.” Again, as regards the human mind, “Perplexed”; as regards trust in God, “Not in despair”; and the rest likewise. Such too are the things he said elsewhere: “As dying, and behold, we live; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”

Question. Since the Lord says, “But give as alms what is within, and see, all things are clean for you,” does one find cleansing through almsgiving for everything he has sinned?

Answer. The sequence of what precedes makes the saying clear. For having first said, “You cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but your inside is full of robbery and wickedness,” he then added, “But give as alms what is within, and see, all things are clean for you”: all these things, plainly, in which we sin and do wickedness by robbing and grasping. Zacchaeus shows this too, saying: “See, half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” So sins of this kind, which can be undone and for which one can repay many times over, are cleansed in this way; and in this way, I say, not as sufficient in itself for cleansing, but needing above all the mercy of God and the blood of Christ, in whom we have redemption from all the others too, by bearing fruits worthy of repentance for each.